


Counting Stars

by incandescence



Series: Shiritori [5]
Category: Hey! Say! JUMP, Johnny's Entertainment, 水球ヤンキース | Suikyuu Yankees
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drama-verse, F/M, Too many pairings, so hard to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-08
Updated: 2014-09-08
Packaged: 2018-02-16 15:30:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2274978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/incandescence/pseuds/incandescence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's time for another inter-high water polo tournament. But the tournament only starts tomorrow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Counting Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Shiritori. Words from previous work were 'five stars'.

Five stars shine brightly in the night sky. Five stars, and nothing more. Nagisa knows this because she’s counted them over and over again tonight, and each time she only ever gets from one to five. Another one isn’t going to magically appear in the sky while she’s staring at it, but Nagisa counts anyway because it’s long become a habit.

“Training your eyes again?” Ryuji teases, stepping out onto the porch to sit beside her. She hadn’t even heard him come out of the shower. He chuckles at the startled expression on her face and pokes one of her cheeks. “How many tonight?”

Nagisa sticks her tongue out at him. “Count for yourself,” she says, pointing up. “There aren’t that many tonight, I’m sure you can manage it.”

He laughs again, and after a few seconds she tells him anyway. An arm wraps around her, and Nagisa rests her head onto his shoulder. “Five, huh,” Ryuji says, eyes travelling upwards to look at them too. 

*

As soon as it hits six o’clock, Rei puts down her pen with a sigh and stretches her arms out. They’ve decided that the night before the match is never a time to talk strategy. Across the table from her Torao does the same, a wide smile spreading across his face.

“There’s no way we can lose,” he says, pumping one fist in the air. “We’ve got this.” 

Secretly, Rei agrees. Both teams are in better form than they’ve been all year, and Rei is sure that between Torao, her and Coach, they’ve covered all grounds. She knows as well as he does, however, that what happens during practice can’t always be predicted with theory. “You don’t know what will happen tomorrow,” Rei reminds him, though she can feel her lips quirk up. Torao shrugs it off, too jubilant to care. Maybe tomorrow, she’ll go and run through their notes one more time with Nagisa. 

“Let’s go,” he says, standing up abruptly and striding over to her side of the table. Rei rushes to pack up her things when he takes her hand.

“Where are we going?” she asks a little breathlessly, slinging her bag over her shoulder and hurrying closer to Torao’s side.

“A date,” he replies, beaming. 

Rei wraps her arms around Torao’s neck when he leans down to kiss her.

*

“You have corn stuck between your teeth,” Riko giggles, but he doesn’t really. Riko just finds Naoya’s surprised face funny. His eyebrows shoot up and his mouth drops comically open, and he looks like he’s just been electrocuted. Riko still thinks it’s one of the cutest thing she’s ever seen, second only to Nagisa-senpai whenever she spaces out. The third thing is Torao’s face when he sleeps, but Riko technically wasn’t supposed to see that so she’s never said anything. Sometimes, though, when she’s feeling particularly mischievous and senpai’s not around, she makes offhand comments about Torao to Rei when they talk in the changing room, and takes great pleasure in watching the poor girl’s face turn bright red. Sometimes Riko thinks she’s too evil for her own good, but that’s why everybody loves her.

“Do I?” he asks mid-bite, and Riko has to pinch herself in order to not engulf in another wave of laughter.

“No, dear.” She smiles at him until he becomes satisfied enough to resume eating. “We’re going to win tomorrow,” she says in her best dreamy voice, revisiting the conversation they were having earlier, before she brought out dinner and Naoya pounced.

Naoya’s expression changes immediately to one of indignance. “Nope. _We’re_ going to win tomorrow,” he declares. “Just you wait. Toraero won’t score even a single goal tomorrow.” He places the corn cob back on his plate triumphantly. “Finished!”

Riko was waiting for that. Naoya doesn’t even see her coming until she’s already in his arms, snuggling up against his chest. “Do your best tomorrow, okay? I’ll be cheering for you!”

“Oh,” Naoya mumbles into her hair, a little embarrassed. “You too, Riko.”

She smiles into his shirt and presses even closer. “We’re still going to win.”

*

“Five’s enough,” she whispers, and Ryuji hums in agreement.

One of Nagisa’s hands finds its way to Ryuji’s as they continue to sit in silence, admiring the night view.

“Good luck tomorrow,” she says eventually, when Nagisa can feel the temperature dropping even lower. She sits up to flash him her best encouraging smile. “You have to win!”

Ryuji chuckles, his face flushing. “Shouldn’t you be cheering for your own team?”

Nagisa just shrugs and begins to stands up, pulling Ryuji up with her so she can drag him back inside. It’s time for him to go home and get some rest. “I’ve always been cheering for you.”

**Author's Note:**

> There are so many relationships and characters I want to explore in _Suikyuu Yankees_... so I wrote three of them in one;; /o\ I never want to stop writing Suiyan fic, never, ever.


End file.
